1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auto-changer type disc apparatus for pulling out a desired disc from a disc stocking unit in which plural discs are stocked (accommodated), and for recording/reproducing information signals on/from the disc, and particularly to an improvement in operation performance of the apparatus, stabilization of the take-in/take-out operation of the disc into/from the disc stocking unit, recording/reproducing on/from both sides of a disc, and cleaning the surface of the disc.
2. Description of Related Art
As an example of this type disc apparatus, there is known an apparatus including a disc stocking unit in which plural discs are piled up, a hand unit for pulling out a desired disc from the disc stocking unit, and plural disc reproducers (pickup units) for reproducing the selected disc as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-5-182343.
Further, as a disc apparatus used for recording/reproducing on/from both sides of a disc (hereinafter referred to as double-side disc apparatus), there is known an apparatus in which drives (pickup units) for recording/reproducing information on/from obverse and back surfaces of a disc respectively are individually and separately provided in the apparatus to thereby omit an inverting mechanism as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent application No. Hei-5-314626.
As described above, the conventional disc apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-5-182343 is designed so that plural pickup units are fixedly mounted in the disc apparatus. Accordingly, for example, when a pickup unit is required to be taken out from the apparatus and repaired due to failure of the pickup unit, it is necessary to dismantle the apparatus. Therefore, this type of disc apparatus is inconvenient from the point of view of maintenance to users.
With the double-side disc apparatus as described in Japanese Laid-open Patent application No. Hei-5-314626, for example, in the case where the obverse side of a disc is recorded/reproduced by the pickup unit for the obverse side while the back side of the disc is not recorded/reproduced by the pickup unit for the back side, and a request to record/reproduce the obverse side of another disc is made, this type of disc apparatus cannot satisfy this request.
Furthermore, these disc apparatuses, particularly a disc apparatus having a disc stocking unit for stocking a number of discs, plural pickup units and a disc feeding unit for feeding a disc between the pickup units, have the following disadvantage. If a disc being fed by the disc feeding unit is inclined at a large angle with respect to other discs which are stocked in the disc stocking unit, there frequently occurs a case where the disc being returned from the disc feeding unit to the disc stocking unit abuts against a member constituting the disc stocking unit, and the disc return operation fails. In order to avoid these problems, the operation is required to be stabilized.
In addition, in the conventional disc apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-5-314626, the discs are stocked in a case, and thus there is no problem with attachment of dust, mote, etc. onto the discs. However, when a disc is handled, particularly in a case of a disc apparatus which is designed so that a high-density disc DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is handled without being stocked in a case, a dust protective treatment is preferably conducted on the disc to prevent dust, mote, etc., which are frequently the cause of dropout, from being attached onto the disc.